Short stories
Fish in a Dwindling Lake
by Ambai
Journeys form the leitmotif of these astonishing new stories by Ambai. Some culminate in an unconventional love affair, some are extraordinary tales of loyalty and integrity; others touch upon the almost fantastic, absurd aspect of Mumbai. Yet others explore the notion of a wholesome self and its tragic absence at times. These stories are illuminated by vivid and unusual characters: from an eccentric, penurious singer-couple who adopt an ape as their son to a male prostitute who is battered by bimbos for not giving ‘full’ satisfaction. Crucially, some of the stories, like the title story, engage uninhibitedly with a woman’s relationship to her body. For Ambai, feminist par excellence, the sensual body, experienced as a natural landscape changing with age, is, at the same time, the only vehicle of life and tool for mapping the external world.
